David Christian
David Christian
scales stories
If historians don't tell stories at the scales of creation myths, someone else will.
history offering studies
Big History studies the history of everything, offering a way of making sense of our world and our role within it.
classes education fragmented hard human meaning physics view
In literature classes, you don't learn about genes; in physics classes you don't learn about human evolution. So you get a fragmented view of the world. That makes it hard to find meaning in education.
complexity creates extremely means
We, as extremely complex creatures, desperately need to know this story of how the universe creates complexity and why complexity means vulnerability and fragility.
begin elements exotic forged form fuse high large sorts wearing
When very large stars die, they create temperatures so high that protons begin to fuse in all sorts of exotic combinations, to form all the elements of the periodic table. If, like me, you're wearing a gold ring, it was forged in a supernova explosion.
create egg gut hearts instinct laws reflected second travel universe
An egg is a beautiful, sophisticated thing that can create even more sophisticated things, such as chickens. And we know in our heart of hearts that the universe does not travel from mush to complexity. In fact, this gut instinct is reflected in one of the most fundamental laws of physics, the second law of thermodynamics, or the law of entropy.
created huge organisms packages
Living organisms are created by chemistry. We are huge packages of chemicals.
ask history string turns
You go to the cosmologists and ask how they tell the history of the universe; you go to the geologists, how do they tell the story of the earth, and the biologists, and then you string them together. And it turns out that when you string them together, if you do it carefully, there's a story that is coherent, engaging, fantastically interesting.
Gravity is more powerful where there's more stuff.